A Blunder, Some Hunger, and Feeling Younger

Twinkies are not technically food. On the other hand, two or three of these on a cheat day. maybe every six months or so, ain’t gonna kill ya.

When I got back from vacation back in August, I decided to eliminate meat for a week to cut calories and drop the weight I put on. Worked great — the weight fell off — and so I decided to stick with it for a while. After a few weeks of meat only 1 day per week, I re-realized what I realized back in 2000 when I gave up being a vegetarian after 14 years:

Not eating meat makes me fat.

Some people can do it, like the vegetarian bodybuilders I read about online and in all the magazines, but I just can’t. I get a taste of carbs and my cravings are irresistible. Meat makes me feel full and curbs my appetite. And then Mark Hatmaker pointed me to an article about training over age 50. One of the things the article pointed out was that people over 50 need more protein than younger folks. Vegetarian experiment concluded!

This is an old drawing I made of the Tree of Life as part of my spiritual project a couple of years back. It’s a little out of whack because that was before I saw Mr. Watt’s post on how to draw one. (https://goo.gl/6GEP08)

While I was poking around some related websites I came across some stuff about how intermittent fasting makes you leaner and stronger. And then I re-realized something I realized a couple of years ago when I was fasting one day a week for a spiritual project I was working on:

A weekly fast day helps you shred.

So does bulletproof coffee, it just makes you a grumpy old meanie if you do it two or more days in a row. So I’m doing a 12-hour fast on Wednesdays — one cup of coffee with 1 tbsp of coconut oil or 2 tbsp of heavy whipping cream at 5 AM and nothing further until dinner at 6 PM.

Coffee is most excellent.

I’m getting a cholesterol check next week. I’ll post the results. Can’t see how a tablespoon or two of fat is that big a deal one day a week. I mean, if I was eating breakfast I’d have two eggs, and if I was having lunch I’d have salad dressing, meat or cheese. I think net fat is actually lower on fasting days.

Have you tried any of these techniques? Are you 50+ years of age? Share your experiences in the comments, please!

2 responses to “A Blunder, Some Hunger, and Feeling Younger”

Yes, caffeine reduces hunger and there are more and more studies showing that, contrary to the popular wisdom, pounding 8+ glasses of water/day may actually make you hungrier. So all told, I’m a fan of the coffee. I drink about a pot a day of half-caff. Besides, it’s the only thing approaching a vice I have left — I quit smoking three years ago, I only drink 1 or 2 beers or glasses of wine on Saturday cheat days, and I eat so clean it’s ridiculous.